The Good Ole Boys

The "good ole boys" is a term Ive used all my life to describe a group that Ive never written about in an effort to define what I mean by that. Ill attemt to do that here as well as write about what Ive learned is the best approach to deal with such a force.


The reason I feel the need to do that is because Im trying to educate myself about some issues that are happening in other parts of the world that have some attitudes and costoms that are parellel to the ones in the geographical location that Im accostomed to dealing with.

To understand this kind of thing I have to understand better whats going on in these other places better. However, I have already learned that this "good ole boy network" that I have always thought of as having its base in the southern U.S.,( at least the one I see and deal with) has begun to network in many other parts of the world. Thats important to know.

No one can ever say for sure how big any unorganised network really is but what I hope to write about in this essay is the underestimated power of the individual person and thier individual thoughts.


While Im not surprised at the size of this familiar network, it actually makes it a little easier to learn what Im trying to, by realising that although there are many aspects that need to be considered, the network that I know something about is at least part of what can be factored in as some kind of influence. All it really means to me is that in trying to learn what I am, there are at least some influences that Im already aware of. That means Im at least not starting from scratch. (Ill be more specific in future posts about my direction with all this.).


Speaking about this network (or any other)does not define the person who uses the term as either a conspiracy theorist or someone who is paranoid. What "the good ole boy network" means to me is a network of people (men and women) who have an established power that is unwritten an rarely acknowleged for what it is that effects alot of the decisions within in public forums and news sources without a clear definition of their influence.


I have known something about how all this worked from before I had even known that it had a name or had been defined by anyone. Like many such things, as I began to understand it, I felt more helpless and disempowered. These days Im leaning how to get around or through what, before seemed like, impossible obstacles.


One of the things that has disempowered me more than anything was the belief that because this was a well established network of public power that was in influencing certain decisions that I felt were wrong, I would never have but so much freedom or liberty unless I was a part of a similar network whose objective it was to counter this movement.


Because the good ole boy network derives its strength from being unorganised, one who has recognised thier power may begin by feeling that any attempt to counter their efforts would need to come from either another organised effort to protest them or that they would need to become a part of some unorganised network that wants to counter them. (Sometimes a network seems to be dependant on numbers of people and less dependant on independant thought.)


Today I am empowered by the reminder of the power of a PLAN. You see no one can stop someone with a plan because no one has a plan to stop them. This has everything to do with why diversity is importatnt and what supports my veiws of creativity.


I have always known that I was wired different but too often I have been thinking of this as a deficeit. Its not. Not at all.

This is not limited to those who born with different wiring. Anyone can do it. All of us are given different equitment and different experiances with which to create plans.

Too often we doubt the power of those plans because we see how powerful collective power can be. The thing is that what Im talking about here is where collective power is actually more vulnerable and less effective than personal power. Collective power (organised or unorganised) is dependant on the ideas of many people. No matter how much exchange of ideas their is within these groups, they will never reach the power of solidarity of the individual and an individuals thoughts.

Too often we doubt ourselves and believe that someone must know better than we do.

When people with an understanding of this personal power can agree on a common purpose or cause and network to achieve that common purpose without sacrificing their individualism, there is no way that anyone can stop them. Thats where our hope is.This kind of networking has great strength.